15 to life for girlfriend’s motel killing

San Diego  A man who killed his girlfriend and left her body in a Talmadge motel room was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison Friday.

Stacey Ricardo Johnson, 44, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Candace Hamilton, a 47-year-old mother of six.

She had checked into the La Cresta Motel on El Cajon Boulevard on June 1, 2013. When she didn’t check out, the manager looked in on her and found her body on the floor. She had been bound, gagged and suffocated, authorities said.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Gill handed down the sentence in keeping with the plea agreement. An additional two years were tacked on for an assault against an inmate while in custody.

Hamilton’s children spoke of their indescribable loss in court Friday, saying they had tried many times to pull their mother away from Johnson, sometimes with success. But she always went back.

“You didn’t have to take her from me, from us,” her daughter, Penny LaMadrid, said to the defendant. “I wonder if you even care. You’re a monster.”

Daughter Tiffani Hamilton said she was only 16 when her mother was killed.

“My mom, all she did was love,” she said. “She woke me up every morning and told me how beautiful I was. I will never get to hear that again.”